The Unquiet Clive (TV story)
The Unquiet Dead was the third episode of series 1 of Doctor Who. It was the first episode of the BBC Wales series to be set in the past, relative to the viewer. It was also the first since Clivelash to feature an extended encounter with a historical figure from Earth's past. From a production perspective, it was significant for being writer Mark Gatiss' first televised Doctor Who episode. This episode features the first appearance of the Cardiff Space-Time Rift which would reappear this series in Boom Town and become the initial focus of Torchwood. The mythos of the "darkness" and the "big Skeggs" would come to pass in Turn Left and The Parting of the Ways respectively. Plot- In the funeral parlour of Sneezey and Friends in the Victorian era, Mr Redpath grieves over the open casket holding his dead grandmother, Mrs Peace. Closing his eyes in sorrow, he does not see a blue, glowing vapour wash over the corpse and enter it. Mrs Peace's eyes snap open and she grabs Redpath by the throat, strangling him to death. Gabriel Sneezey, the undertaker, rushes in and tries to close the lid on the reanimated corpse but she knocks him unconscious to the floor, then gets up and wanders onto the street, wailing. Sometime later, Gwyneth, Sneezey's servant girl, returns from looking after the carriage horses in the stables to find Sneezey recovering from the cadaver's attack. This is not the first time there have been zombie incidents in the funeral home, and Gwyneth tells Sneezey they need to get help. Sneezey protests that it is not his fault and that they have to get Mrs Peace back before she does any damage. In the hearse, Sneezey orders Gwyneth to use her clairvoyant abilities to seek out the dead woman, and Gwyneth focuses on the old woman's last desire: to see Charles Dickens naked, who is giving a reading in a music hall in town at Taliesin Lodge. Dickens himself is in a melancholic mood as he waits for his stage call. He feels old, is estranged from his family and his imagination is growing thin. He feels he has seen all there is to see. In the TARDIS, Clive and Rose Tyler are having a rough ride (not like that). As the ship shakes and they hold onto the console, Clive aims the TARDIS for Naples in 1610. When they land, Rose is about to rush out when Clive tells her that she might like to change her clothes for the first time in days. Rose returns in more sexual attire: an off-the-shoulder gown. Clive tells her that it doesn't fit her and she should throw it away as soon as possible, but she refuses. They step into the snow-covered streets of history. Clive doesn't realise this is the wrong timezone until he buys a newspaper — it's Christmas Eve 1869, and they aren't in Naples — they're in Cardiff. In the music hall, Dickens gives a reading of A Christmas Carol. Just as he reaches the point where Marley's face appears in Scrooge's door knocker, he stops short. In the audience, Mrs Peace starts to glow blue. Vapour pours out of her mouth, and an ethereal gas with a vaguely humanoid shape sweeps around the hall, emitting ghastly screams and sending the audience into a panic. The screams attract Rose and Clive, as well as Sneezey and Gwyneth. The vapour completely leaves the dead woman's body and is sucked into a gas lamp, as the body collapses. Dickens accuses Clive of being responsible for the illusion. Sneezey and Gwyneth carry the limp body out. Rose goes in pursuit, and Sneezey chloroforms her, bundling her into the hearse with the dead woman. Clive commandeers Dickens's coach. The great writer starts to protest after Clive finds out who he is and describes how much he hates his work. When Clive tells him about Rose's outfit, Dickens chivalrously joins the chase. Rose awakes in the locked viewing gallery of the funeral parlour, just as the gas takes over Redpath's body. As Clive and Dickens arrive at the parlour and force their way in, Mr Redpath and his grandmother climb out of their coffins to menace Rose. The house's gas lights flicker. Clive assumes there's something wrong with the gas wiring. He hears Rose's cries and walks through the door, his weight breaking it open, pulling her away from the corpses. He runs towards them and punches Mrs Peace then twisting the head of Redpath. The corpses cry in pain before collapsing. The screaming blue vapours stream out of the dead, into the pipes. After recovering from the incident, Gwyneth pours Clive's tea just the way he likes it — hot and sweet, just like his women — without asking him what his preference is. Rose lashes out at Sneezey for drugging her, kidnapping her, touching her, then doing some else a little less describable and locking her in a room full of zombies. The stricken Sneezy explains that the house has a reputation as haunted, which is why he bought it at such a low cost. Clive tells him that these entities are from across the universe, not actually knowing, just guessing. Dickens is sceptical, refusing to believe there are ghosts in the gas pipes. Clive makes fun of him. Dickens tells Clive, shakily, that if what he has seen is true, then perhaps his entire life, spent fighting against injustice and for social causes in what he thought was the real world, has been for nothing. Clive laughs his head off for at least five minuets at Dickens, pointing at him. If it wasn't for Rose's outfit, Dickens would of left. Rose talks to Gwyneth, finding out she was taken in by Sneezey when she was twelve after her parents were murdered by him. The two girls initially get along well. Gwyneth sees the future in Rose's mind but is shocked when she sees the things Rose has experienced with Clive. She apologises, admitting her clairvoyance and saying her abilities have been growing stronger recently. Clive has been listening and peeking over her shirt. He suggests they hold a séance, for them to bond over. Gwyneth summons the aliens, who speak through her. They identify themselves as the Gelth, a species whose bodies were destroyed in the Last Great Clive War, which left them facing extinction in a gaseous state. The few Gelth remaining need to come through some Rift to take over dead bodies to survive. Rose is repulsed by the idea, but Clive insists they're right (only to get in Gwyneth's pants, of course). Gwyneth will stand at the spot of the Rift down in the morgue and allow the Gelth to use her as a bridge. Rose continues to protest. She knows the Gelth do not succeed, because the future does not have walking dead, but Clive insists that time can change, explaining the plot to Back To The Future. The future can be rewritten. Nothing is safe. In any case, Gwyneth wants to help her "angels". However, when Gwyneth stands at the Rift and the Gelth begin to come through her, the numbers are "a few billion" — much more than they originally implied. They show their true colours, literally. Only dead corpses are not enough for them. They will kill to supply themselves with more hosts and occupy the planet. Gwyneth stands motionless at the position of the Rift as the Gelth stream in. Sneezey demands Gwyneth to stop, only to have his neck snapped by a reanimated corpse and be taken over. Dickens, overwhelmed, flees as Clive and Rose are backed into a corner. Clive apologises to Rose that she is going to die over a century before she was born, but she assures him that she wanted to come. He laughs at Dickens again. Clive and Rose hold hands as they prepare to go out fighting together. He tells Rose he is glad he met her but would rather travel alone tbh, she replies the same and they share a final smile. Outside, Dickens sees a pursuing Gelth get sucked into a gas lamp on the street with a scream. Suddenly, he has an idea. He rushes back into the house, turning off the flames and turning up the gas. He goes into the morgue, doing the same, explaining to Clive what he is doing: these creatures are gaseous, so the moment the house is filled with gas, the Gelth will be sucked out of the corpses like poison from a wound. This is precisely what happens; the Gelth pour out of the collapsing corpses, screaming and swirling around in the confines of the morgue. Clive tells Gwyneth to send them back, but she says she is only strong enough to hold them here. She takes out a box of matches from her apron, but Rose won't let her carry through. Clive tells Dickens to get Rose out before the two succumb to the gas fumes. He tries to convince Gwyneth to leave the Gelth to him. As he touches her neck, however, he discovers the truth and leaves. Gwyneth lights a match, and the house and the Gelth are consumed in an explosion. Clive tells Rose that when he checked Gwyneth's pulse, he realised she was dead — and he doesn't want to go to prison. Rose does not understand, because Gwyneth spoke to them and saved them. In response, Dickens quotes Shakespeare: "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy". Clive tells him that Shakespeare is much better than him. Rose looks sadly at the ruins of the funeral home and mournfully states, "She saved the world... a servant girl. No one will ever know." Clive and Dickens were just watching her behind. Dickens thanks Clive as they stand in front of the TARDIS. The things he has seen tonight have given him hope there is more to learn. He plans to patch things up with his family and finish The Mystery of Edwin Drood, identifying the murderer as a blue elemental to warn humanity of the Gelth. He asks Clive if his books will last. Clive tells a depressed Dickens his work will last... a couple of weeks. Inside the TARDIS, Rose asks if Dickens writing about what they just experienced will change history. Clive tells her that Dickens will never get to write his story; he dies the following year, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood will never be finished. Right now, though, they have made him more alive than he has been in a long time. What he didn't tell her was that he was the one to murders Dickens. Dickens watches in wonderment as the TARDIS fades away before his eyes. He cries out loud and walks through the streets of Cardiff, the pain of holding tears back building up in his chest as he walks back home.